Exhilaration
by Kay Willow
Summary: An inattentive moment during the thrill of the fight leads Kallen to wonder if the whole world hasn't been given an insight into her private life. Someone will have to pay. //Gino/Kallen//


**.exhilaration.**  
.

She didn't even know she was laughing until Gino's voice cut to her over the speakers, a smirking edged, "Is that you cackling, Kouzuki? Sounding a little crazy there, ace."

"Don't push your luck," she shot back, and fired a slash harken at Tristan's blue bulk, swinging nimbly around to catch it up in the cord. Gino reacted quickly, swinging the Excalibur's blades up to sever the slash harken in a blast of vibration energy. He darted quickly under her reach, trying to gain momentum to catch up with her before she recovered from her recoil, but she had already spun to face him, and the Excalibur clashed down on the Guren's extended radiant wave surger arm.

A little shove and Kallen triggered the radiation burst -- or what should have been the radiation burst, and it was a jolt of reality when nothing seemed to happen, disappointing.

Gino broke free and tossed the affected sword aside, but the second Excalibur blade still seemed functional. Kallen launched herself into the air, flipping the Guren neatly above him and reaching out for it. In a single smooth movement the Tristan brought up its cannon, and she activated her energy wing system, rocketing up to avoid the blast.

"Hey! Flying is cheating!" Gino protested, sending the Tristan skating backward in an arc, still firing at her.

"You're only saying that because you're stuck with that inferior float system," Kallen said smugly, showing off by twirling to catch the attack on an energy wing, letting the charge fizzle and absorb, and then fixed him in her sights and fired her radiant wave surger again.

"Stuck with? I like it," Gino said, cheeky even as the left arm of his Tristan disengaged and fell to the ground in a cloud of dust. "It's cute, don't you think? Black Knights technology..."

"Is that why you're still using that outdated air glide model?" she retorted. She was grinning, ear to ear, and she couldn't quite control it, nor the eager rushing of her blood. She had to tell herself that combat was nothing to be excited over, that she shouldn't enjoy it quite this much or it would look like she had _fun_ killing people -- but she was _good_ at it, and it was so exciting, worlds away from the theme park rides where other people went to have fun. And if the crowd was entertained, and she was entertained, what was the harm?

Gino laughed, light-hearted. "My secret plan was to get you to admire me! You know, for sticking by a Japanese innovation!"

Somehow, she hadn't expected such a blatant line on the battlefield, even though it was really pretty typical of him. _--that incorrigible flirt!_ Kallen thought, and twisted the Guren around to dropkick Tristan in the head with all the force of her fall.

The KMF's heavily-padded head went flying off. "Ow," Gino observed over the speakers, and then the cheering of the spectators escalated sharply all around them. Kallen straightened her hair and took a calming breath before opening the cockpit and stepping out of the Guren. The announcer was proclaiming the Guren SEITEN Mk-II victorious over the Tristan Divider, and Gino stepped out of the Tristan's cockpit to grin at her, unscathed, and she felt a swell of relief, or pleasure, or something.

The war really was over, wasn't it? They were fighting for _fun_, and nobody was hurt.

They crossed over to each other and she bowed to the cheering spectators and the cameras; Gino waved enthusiastically, like he thought maybe he was the winner. An official crossed over to them, rattling off the name of the opponent she would be fighting in the afternoon.

Gino whispered to her, "Flying's cheating in a _sport_ match--"

"I didn't hear them disqualifying me," Kallen said, a smirk curving up her lips.

Without looking up, the official said, "You were fouled. You couldn't hear it with your external speakers engaged."

She paused. "My what?" 

"Your external speakers were on the whole time," the official said, still -- now perhaps suspiciously -- not looking up.

_So everyone watching in the stands and on TV heard what we were saying?_ Kallen thought, and darted a dirty glance at Gino. It was his fault... somehow.

They hadn't said anything overt. Nothing that would make her friends and classmates look at her funny when she returned to school. The laughter might have been slightly alarming, but the classmates who followed her around these days were attracted _to_ her reputation. Everything else was just typical combat bad-mouthing, banter and nothing questionable...

...except that Gino had said he wanted her to notice him.

So no one knew she was dating Gino. They just knew he was interested in her.

Everyone watching.

She fixed another long, flat stare on the sheepish blond. "Next time leave it to the color commentators," the official advised, and found somewhere else to be.

"We should all be fighting in those Akatsukis instead of our custom models anyway," Gino said, apparently out of nowhere, and drifted off toward the exit. "I mean, Tristan was restored, but not powered up. The Guren SEITEN is in another class entirely."

Kallen shoved him in the back when they got into the shade, out of sight of the cameras, and was satisfied to see him stumble. "I'm still the best," she said. "Just admit it."

"We haven't had a real fight yet," he countered, "since you cheated this time."

She shoved him again, hard on one shoulder, and he half-turned as he stumbled again, giving her the ability to grab him by the collar of his flightsuit (the man looked damn good in a flightsuit) and push him back into the wall. Gino's eyebrows shot up, not unappreciative, as she stepped in close against him, thigh to thigh, belly to belly, her soft breasts pressing against his lean muscle.

"So, this kind of thing turns you on?" he asked, impish, arms winding around her.

_Impossible,_ she thought again, but kissed his neck, all of him that she could reach on her own and she was already on her tiptoes to do it. He was very obliging, however, and when she tugged he was already curling in above her, gloved hand threading through her hair and cupping the back of her head. Their lips met, warm and melting, and she navigated him to the side, toward the nearest door.

Kallen purred into his mouth, "I'm not talking to you until the whole country has forgotten this."

There was a pause; she waited patiently for his brain to switch on, and then he protested, "Wait--"

"Not even opening your email," she said, edgier.

"But--"

She shoved him at the couch as the door slid shut behind them. "My _mother_ was watching that!" Kallen flushed, thinking of her mother, sitting in front of the TV in her wheelchair, listening in shock to her daughter taunt her enemy while he _flirted with her_.

"Well, I wanted to meet her anyway?" he said hopefully, and deflated when she leveled him with a flat stare. "How long?" he tried again.

Kallen pulled her headband off and ran fingers through her hair. "Until every gossip magazine, every leering schoolboy, and my mom have forgotten it ever happened," she said, unwavering, and added direly, "_Months._"

Gino groaned, putting an arm over his eyes. "That's cruelty," he protested, "that's forever."

She smirked at him and slid into his lap, which seemed to revive his interest in the here and now. From her vantage point straddling his hips, she found the front of his flightsuit and started drawing the zipper down. "I'll give you something nice to remember me by. And then," Kallen pronounced, "_nothing_."

Gino just breathed for a few unsteady seconds, turning that over, and then finally said, "This really does turn you on, doesn't it?"

"What can I say?" she said, low, almost a murmur as she ducked her head to his. "I kinda like being the best."


End file.
